Apes Hill Barbados

Ask somebody to associate Barbados with world quality golf venues and most people will link the layouts at Sandy Lane and Royal Westmoreland to the Royal and Ancient game – well, think again because the new course at the Apes Hill Club signifies the arrival of another top end golfing destinations on the island.

Local businessman Sir Charles Williams provided the finance for the residential development at Apes Hill and money was certainly no object when it came to building an 18-hole centerpiece golf course, evidenced by the trucking in of 6,000 loads of sand to cap the fairways.

Sir Charles enlisted American developer Jerry Barton of the Landmark Land Company to construct his housing and golf complex and he in turn looked to in-house architects Jeff Potts (an old Pete Dye associate) and Chris Cole to design the golfing element of the project.

Much of the property sits on an old sugar plantation at an elevation of 1,000 feet, offering golfers fantastic long views of the Caribbean Sea to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east when they climb to the elevated tee of the 12th hole. This begins the three-hole Amen Corner portion of the Apes Hill course where fairways have been carved through what has been described as “upcountry jungle”.

Each of the nines open with uphill par fives that play into the prevailing wind and both the nines close with downhill, downwind holes – the 9th is a 595-yard par five and the 18th a 500-yard par four.

The handful of par threes on the card are collectively as good a set of short holes as you’ll find anywhere in the Caribbean. The most photogenic of these holes on the front nine is the 185-yard 5th where the green is cut into the side of a coral stone cliff and the same rock formation also forms an eye catching backdrop to the 200-yard 16th.

In November 2019 we learnt that the course at the Apes Hill Club closed. Twelve months later it was announced that Apes Hill had been bought by Canadian businessman Glen Chamandy and was undergoing a $24 million renovation, with course improvements under the direction of Ron Kirby. The layout reopened in January 2022, featuring a new par three course (where a relaxed dress code allows guests to wear flip-flops) and a 19th hole by the clubhouse which plays to an island green.